An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is an integrated circuit customized for a particular use, rather than general purpose use. For example, a chip designed to run specifically in a digital voice recorder is an ASIC. As feature sizes have continued to shrink and design tools have continued to improve, the maximum complexity, and hence functionality, possible in an ASIC has grown from 5,000 gates to over 100 million gates.
Due to their complex nature, ASICs often contain several different components such as microprocessors, random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), and Flash memory. Each of these components have different yield sensitivities and therefore may produce a higher or lower yield dependent on the different process parameters implemented during the manufacturing process. If the line does not take yield sensitivities into account, the resulting ASIC may yield at an insufficient level. In addition, in low volume manufacturing, re-tuning the line after yield sensitivities have been characterized on an ASIC can be very costly.